The liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) 1. how will the LFTR provide benefits? 2. how might the...

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Physics

The liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR)
1. how will the LFTR provide benefits?
2. how might the LFTR produce harm?
3. will the LFRT be gendered?
4. what might be the malfunction risks?
5. how might the LFRT introduce cause and effectsrelationship?
please help me answer all questions.

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aLFTR have technological advantages in three particular areas safety fuel efficiency and lack of nuclear waste Inherent safety LFTR designs use a strong negative temperature coefficient of reactivity to achieve passive inherent safety against excursions of reactivity The temperature dependence comes from 3 sources The first is that thorium absorbs more neutrons if it overheats the socalled Doppler effect This leaves fewer neutrons to continue the chain reaction reducing power The second part is heating the graphite moderator that usually causes a positive contribution to the temperature coefficient The third effect has to do with thermal expansion of the fuelIf the fuel overheats it expands considerably which due to the liquid nature of the fuel will push fuel out of the active core region In a small eg the MSRE test reactor or well moderated core this reduces the reactivity However in a large undermoderated core eg the ORNL MSBR design less fuel salt means better moderation and thus more reactivity and an undesirable positive temperature coefficient Stable coolant Molten fluorides are chemically stable and impervious to radiation The salts do not burn explode or decompose even under high temperature and radiation There are no rapid violent reactions with water and air that sodium coolant has There is no combustible hydrogen production that water coolants haveHowever the salt is not stable to radiation at low less than 100 C temperatures due to radiolysis Low pressure operation Because the coolant salts remain liquid at high temperatures LFTR cores are designed to operate at low pressures like 06 MPacomparable to the pressure in the drinking water system from the pump and hydrostatic pressure Even if the core failsclarification needed there is little increase in volume Thus the containment building cannot blow up LFTR coolant salts are chosen to have very high boiling points Even a several hundred degree heatup during a transient or accident does not cause a meaningful pressure increase There is See Answer

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